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Welcome to the blog! These are the rants, reviews, and revelations of an enlightened white boy.I'm passionate about facilitating dialogue about tough issues such as race, religion, and relationships. If you want to know something, ask me and I'll tell you the truth. To see my random musings, follow me on Twitter by clicking on my face or @StuMcDnld.

Editor’s Note: This post is from a good friend of mine, Marcus. Marcus, like me is definitely not short of opinions, but he rarely writes them down (which I’m trying to get him to do more of.) I thought I’d share this with you for the time being. Enjoy.

I’m outraged! How dare they?!

Why is everybody so upset on the political scene right now? Everyday it seems there’s something new for us to bemoan as a “sad commentary on our society.”

Whatever… Are we really shocked that Republicans don’t like Democrats, and Liberals don’t like Conservatives and nobody on opposite sides of the issues is willing to compromise or agree on anything? Please…

The latest source of feigned “outrage” is probably what’s gotten my real attention. So, President Obama planned to give a speech to a bunch of school-aged kids across the nation. In it, he planned to inspire them to reach high and strive to achieve and yada, yada, yada… All boilerplate rah-rah stuff, and none of it terribly objectionable… But my dear conservatives across the fruited plain got their panties all in a wad about it. “He’s going to indoctrinate our children with his socialist agenda…” Ha! Children in public schools across America are being indoctrinated in socialism every day – is that supposed to be news?

Then the folks on the left got all hot and bothered because folks on the right were up in arms. “Why can’t the President address and inspire our children?” Oh, good Lord…

This is politics people… I don’t like your ideas, and you don’t like mine – that is the fundamental basis of the adversarial system we’ve established. And let’s be really honest and accept the fact that nobody’s hands are clean… Case in point, back in October of 1991, George H.W. Bush (that’s #41) did the exact same thing, giving a speech at a junior high school in Washington, D.C. Same boilerplate stuff that President Obama shared today (“study hard, stay in school, write your own destiny” – the same stuff these kids should be hearing at home, but that’s for a whole different note!) And here’s what was said about his speech at the time:

“The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props.” – Washington Post

“The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students… And the president should be doing more about education than saying, ‘Lights, camera, action.'” – Dick Gephardt, then Democrat House Majority Leader

So this isn’t about President Obama, his color, his ideology or whether or not it was proper for him to address those kids today. Neither is it about the parents or school systems that decided not to carry his speech. This is how it is, folks. This is the flavor of the day. I’m outraged… you’re outraged… And no, Rodney, we can’t all just get along…